Pollution cases involving 'forever' chemicals are growing across Wisconsin

Wisconsin is grappling with a growing number of pollution cases involving widely used, largely unregulated chemicals that are contaminating water across the state. 

The Department of Natural Resources has ordered an assessment and cleanup of 31 sites, including Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, for a vast assortment of compounds known as perfluorinated chemicals, or PFAS. 

In the last two years alone, the DNR has mandated 19 new investigations. 

Often called “forever” chemicals because they do not break down in the environment, the substances have been used for decades in products like stain-resistant fabrics, nonstick cookware and firefighting foam. The chemicals have proven to be especially adept at smothering petroleum blazes and have been used extensively at airports and military bases.

PFAS compounds have highly desirable traits that can both repel water and oil.

“They can move freely in the environment and that’s why they end up everywhere,” said Christy Remucal, an aquatic chemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We are going to be dealing with them for a really long time.” 

They figure prominently in several pollution cases, including in Marinette, Madison and a cleanup project getting underway at Mitchell Airport. 

Epidemiology studies suggest some PFAS compounds are associated with increased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension, liver damage, thyroid disease, asthma, decreased fertility, some cancers and a decline in response to vaccines.

The Department of Health Service told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week it is considering conducting a cancer cluster assessment in the Marinette and Peshtigo areas after residents reported their stories of having cancer and other serious illnesses at a public meeting on Dec. 18.

Hundreds of people attended afternoon and evening listening sessions in Marinette, and some questioned whether PFAS contamination in the soil and the water was the cause of their problems. Marinette has the largest PFAS contamination in the state.

The DNR has named Johnson Controls International and business unit Tyco Fire Products as responsible parties in the pollution case. Chemicals in Tyco's firefighting foam are contaminating soil, groundwater and ditches flowing to Lake Michigan.

At the meetings, a farmer stood and spoke solemnly of having to kill hundreds of his cattle that were mysteriously dying. A mother said her 32-year-old daughter was seriously ill from thyroid cancer. 

Pam Goes had breast cancer in 2006 at the age of 44. Until the age of 20, she lived on property where her parents still reside and where Johnson Controls has installed a system to remove elevated levels of PFAS in the family well. 

“I’m not saying Tyco caused it,” Goes said in an interview about her own cancer. 

“I had to make major life changes, so I could survive, move on and have a better life,” she said. “Never did I have to think that I had to worry about my drinking water.”

Also in attendance: Robert Bilott, an Ohio lawyer portrayed in this year’s movie, “Dark Waters,” about his 20-year court fight with chemical company DuPont over PFAS.

Bilott represents some Marinette residents who have, so far, not filed a suit against Johnson Controls, which already is a defendant in multiple lawsuits involving PFAS.

“(We) have been working over the past 18 months with citizens affected by the contamination in Marinette,” said Milwaukee attorney Ralph Weber, who is working with Bilott in Wisconsin. “The next step is still up in the air.”

Shortcomings in cleanup effort

Earlier this year, Johnson Controls increased its environmental reserves, including $140 million for the cost of removing PFAS and other chemicals from soil, surface water and groundwater at Tyco’s fire training center and production plant.

But the DNR has found numerous shortcomings and delays in the early stages of the cleanup, as well as failing to line up a permanent supply of water for residents with tainted wells. Officials ordered the company to attend an all-day meeting in Madison on Jan. 23. 

“We want them to put all of the pieces together to tell the whole story of what is happening up there,” said Christine Haag, director of the DNR’s Bureau of Remediation and Redevelopment.

“We have spent millions of dollars and countless person-hours over the last three years to fix the problem,” Fraser Engerman, a spokesman for the company, said in an email.

Among its efforts is the treatment of more than 43 million gallons of water. Tyco and Johnson Controls have sometimes had to prod the DNR to move more quickly, Engerman said. 

“We aren’t going anywhere and we are committed to making things right …” he said. 

Chemicals behave differently

Remucal, the UW-Madison researcher, said that depending on the type,  PFAS chemicals behave differently in the environment. Sometimes they react in ways they would not in a laboratory, which could complicate a cleanup. 

With funding from Wisconsin Sea Grant, she began taking samples in October in the Marinette and Peshtigo rivers and plans to do more sampling in Green Bay and Lake Michigan

One aim is to better understand which compounds stick to sediments, fish or water.

“When we do any sort of remediation or cleanup, we need to know where to focus,” Remucal said. “Is it the fish and water, or do we need to think about the sediments as well?”

With reports of contamination on the rise, the DNR is using authority under state hazardous spills laws to require cleanups. Most of the cases are in the early stages. 

In October, the agency ordered Milwaukee County to investigate PFAS contamination in stormwater. 

An earlier study found compounds flowing into Oak Creek and Wilson Park Creek, suggesting they are making their way to Lake Michigan. 

Early testing found high PFAS levels at some sites where firefighting foam has been used by the airport, Air National Guard 128th Air Refueling wing and the 440th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve. 

The 440th left Milwaukee in 2007.

According to the DNR, it is not yet known whether the military or the airport, or both, are responsible for the contamination. 

Separately, the chemicals have been found at low levels in samples of Milwaukee’s drinking water the past three years before and after it was treated.   

DNR officials do not consider Milwaukee’s results a significant concern for now but say it’s something to monitor.

“Certainly I would agree with the sentiment that it is something to watch,” said Karen Dettmer, superintendent of Milwaukee Water Works. 

In Madison, officials shut down one well on the city’s east side in March. In all, Madison officials report 14 of 23 wells contain some level of PFAS, although they say the water is safe to drink. 

On Dec. 19, the DNR reported both foam and water collected in October showed extremely high levels of PFAS in Starkweather Creek near Olbrich Botanical Gardens and a Lake Monona boat launch. Officials warned that people and pets avoid contact with the foam.

The DNR has determined one source of contamination is the Dane County Regional Airport and the Truax Air National Guard base.

“Those were screaming high levels,” said Maria Powell, executive director of the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization, which tracks environmental pollution.

Powell said officials need to roll out a public education campaign to keep people and anglers — particularly subsistence fishermen — from using the creek and other spots where high levels of PFAS turn up.

Wisconsin has no standards

On the federal level, the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency is working on national cleanup standards for contaminated areas and determining a safety limit in drinking water. But the agency has been criticized for its slow pace.

Wisconsin is among a majority of states that have not set enforceable standards for PFAS in water, although Minnesota has limits in place and Michigan officials say new requirements will be in place next year.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has directed the DNR to propose standards in drinking water, groundwater and surface water — a process that will take two to three years.

The state’s largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, said it doesn’t oppose standards. But Scott Manley, executive vice president of government relations, testified in November the administration’s proposal was overly broad by lumping in potentially thousands of compounds that have not been studied.

Groups like Clean Wisconsin, an environmental group, have been pushing for a Democrat-backed bill, known as the CLEAR Act, that would speed up the regulation of at least six PFAS compounds. 

The bill has yet to get a hearing in the Republican-controlled Legislature. 

“We started out this year and most people didn't know what PFAS was,” said Carly Michiels, director of government relations for Clean Wisconsin. 

“There has been a lot of outreach. Compared to a year ago, we have moved the needle.”